but because they wish to hear how you have dealt with them. And as they think and dwell
 upon these deeds, they will not fail to recall also those ancient exploits through which
 you have glorified their ancestors, See 239 note. 
 but will often talk of them amongst themselves; and first of all they will tell of the
 time when, being still Dorians, they saw their own cities to be inglorious and
 insignificant and in need of many things, and, feeling them to be unworthy, took the field
 against the leading states of the Peloponnesus—against Argos and Lacedaemon and Messene — conquered them in battle and drove the vanquished both from their cities and from their
 lands, and seized for themselves at that time all the possessions of the enemy and have
 continued to hold them to this day. And no man can point to a greater or a more marvellous
 achievement in those times nor to an enterprise more fortunate or more blessed of the gods
 than that which delivered those who engaged in it from their own poverty and placed them
 in possession of the prosperity of others.